Cso Chorus Makes Brahms Beautiful

September 18, 1992|By John von Rhein, Music critic.

With the previous night`s ``gala`` indulgences safely laid to rest, music director Daniel Barenboim and his Chicago Symphony turned to weightier matters Thursday for the opening concert of the orchestra`s subscription series at Orchestra Hall.

Brahms` ``Ein Deutsches Requiem`` (A German Requiem) might seem an oddly solemn choice for such an inaugural, but the impending retirement of longtime Chicago Symphony Chorus founder-director Margaret Hillis and the prospect of a live Erato recording of one of our chorus` signature pieces made the choice eminently sensible. These concerts are being dedicated to the memory of Louis Sudler, chairman emeritus of the Orchestral Association who died last month.

Drawing his texts from the Lutheran Bible rather than from the Latin funeral service of the Catholic Church, Brahms created not a requiem for the dead but a grandly scaled hymn of consolation for the living.

And it was in that spirit of serious consolation that Barenboim offered the work. Not for him the vigorous, clear-eyed intensity that had marked the Georg Solti and James Levine performances of recent CSO memory. Barenboim returned us to a more old-fashioned view of the Requiem-not without moments of high dramatic contrast, to be sure, but essentially inward-looking, broadly paced and texturally weighty.

One did not always feel the conductor had as firm a grip on the overarching structure as Solti. There was a degree of indulgence to Barenboim`s rhythm and phrasing that, while not so idiosyncratic as his Edinburgh performances of the early 1970s, suggested the manner of

Furtwaengler but not the essence. In the dirgelike second section, he made a massive crescendo on ``Denn alles Fleisch,`` followed by the fortissimo choral entrance; the effect was impressive but self-conscious.

No reservations, however, about the caliber of choral singing, which reflected nothing but glory on Hillis` expert preparation and was in itself worth the price of admission, or about the singing of Thomas Hampson, whose firm, rich baritone invested both of his solos with crystal-clear diction and deeply felt emotion. Edith Wiens, whose bright but soft-centered soprano betrayed breathiness and pitch uncertainty, was not as good.

A broad, somewhat low-voltage Brahms ``Tragic Overture`` completed the program, which will be repeated Friday, Saturday and Tuesday nights.